36. Reed
Chapter thirty-six
Reed
Two Days Before War
Dale’s is packed tightly with the bodies of assassins, including Addison’s family, who showed up late last night.
All the leaders stand at the head of the crowd, their heads tucked as they strategize and map out the neutral grounds the best they can before everything begins.
Alana and Blair stand with Rowan, nodding along as they type furiously.
There’s so much commotion with beers being passed around, people shouting, Addison and her brother talking as her mother lingers next to them with a gentle smile, and Atlas pacing to get back to his wife and newborn.
Yet all I can focus on is Thalia.
She’s been acting strange since yesterday, keeping her distance and lacking her usual lightness. I’ve tried to write it off as nerves, but she only seems eager for this all to be over. I can’t blame her there, but something isn’t right.
I can’t shake it.
“Are your bags packed?” Taryn asks from beside me.
“Mine and Thalia’s,” I say distractedly as I watch my girl’s mannerisms from across the bar.
“Wait, she’s coming with us?” Emma frowns. “That doesn’t seem—” She stops abruptly before blinking. “Um, right. Well, hopefully you and Taryn get placed at the same hospital.”
I shrug. “It’s not like we’ll be staying long, anyway. The fast-paced life of the trauma ER doesn’t really suit me anymore.”
Taryn laughs, but it’s high-pitched. “Same here! Can’t wait…”
Something is definitely going on.
Since yesterday, every conversation around me has felt half a beat off, like everyone got handed a script except me.
Taryn keeps twisting the tab on her beer.
Emma keeps opening her mouth, then deciding against whatever she was about to say.
And Thalia—
Thalia won’t look at me.
Everyone seems to dissolve from their conversation at once as bodies scatter to get started on their own prep. Addison and Logan run into each other before the auburn-haired woman groans, plants a hand on her brother’s cheek, and shoves him away.
“Rude,” Logan snaps.
Addison makes a yapping motion with her hand, snapping her thumb to her fingers. “Learn to look down. Not everyone lives at the top of a fucking beanstalk.”
“Children,” Morgan warns from the sidelines with a stern tilt to her head. She presses a fist to Addison’s spine, straightening her posture before adjusting Logan’s collar.
“Mom,” Addison complains.
“I’m literally an assassin,” Logan deadpans.
“There’s nothing wrong with looking presentable,” the mother muses before licking her thumb and reaching out for her son.
Logan steps back, raising his hands. “I’m good.”
Ford, a tall, burly man who looks like he rips logs in half rather than using an ax, steps beside Morgan and wraps an arm around her waist. His smile tilts with amusement. “Your mother used to threaten people in designer heels.”
“Used to?” Morgan scoffs. “I still do.” She kicks up one leg, revealing the bright red bottom of her black heel.
The two exchange a deeply affectionate look before kissing each other, and their children give disgusted reactions.
“Yeah, I’m gonna go somewhere that isn’t here,” Logan mutters before retreating.
“I think I saw some bleach in the back. I’m gonna go wash my eyeballs,” Addison says dramatically, but doesn’t make a move to leave as her eyes find mine. The humor slips. It’s only for a second, but I catch it. “Everything good?” she asks casually.
Too casually. Then her gaze shifts to Thalia across the room, and it sends me on high alert.
There it is again.
That weird pause everyone keeps having.
The one that makes my skin crawl.
“Okay,” I drawl. “What is happening?”
“Nothing,” Taryn answers immediately.
“That was suspiciously fast.”
“Because nothing is happening.” My friend laughs nervously, her eyes widening at Addison as if to beg for help.
Addison rubs her face. “It’s really not a thing.”
“Taryn’s acting weird.” I say evenly.
My friend nearly chokes on her drink. “I’m acting normally.”
“You sound like a hostage.” I return with an are you kidding me look.
She hides her expression behind her beer as Emma avoids eye contact with me. Addison is also slinking off, creating distance before I can question her anymore.
I sigh, shaking my head before I notice my girl is finally alone and not surrounded by other assassins. I shove through the crowd, calling after her.
“Thalia!”
She turns, a beat of a somber expression playing across her features, before she sobers quickly and meets me halfway.
“Hi,” she says quietly, lifting on her toes and kissing me.
It’s quick and not at all what I’m used to from her. It’s really starting to mess with my head.
“What’s going on?” I ask softly. “Why is everyone acting so weird?”
Her expression falls a little. It’s such a minor, quick change that I almost don’t catch it. “Um,” she looks away from me, exhaling deeply. “We’re all just…on edge.”
It’s the truth, but it’s not her truth. There’s something else going on. Why would she lie to me?
I take her hand in mine, intertwining our fingers. She stops breathing as she stares down at where we connect.
“You’re still leaving with me, right?” I ask as I brush her hair behind her ear. “If you want to stay with your family, we can cancel the tickets—”
“No!” she says abruptly before swallowing and offering me a shaky smile. “No, uh, I just need to help Rowan with something real quick and I’ll meet you there, okay? Taryn and Emma are riding separately. They said they have room for you.”
I blink, my head rearing slightly. “Oh…I just thought—”
“I’ll be super quick, okay?” She says before pressing up on her toes and capturing my lips. The kiss we share is slow and sensual, yet all I can think of is how it doesn’t feel completely like her.
She pulls away too fast, and I use her hand to drag her back to me before she can dip off into the crowd. My fingers dust over her temple, and the feeling of her skin beneath mine is unlike anything I’ve ever felt before.
“Thalia, there’s something I need to tell you—”
She presses her fingertips to my lips, silencing me as she shakes her head, and I swear I see tears welling in her eyes. “No, Reed.”
I take her wrist. “Just let me—”
“Shhh,” she shushes me, tilting her head as she bites her bottom lip. “You need to go, okay? I’ll be right behind you.”
That expression isn’t right. I don’t like the way she’s looking at me right now…
“Okay…” I whisper. Because I trust her. She wouldn’t do this to us.
As we part, it’s slow. Until our fingers no longer brush and we no longer share heat. I’m left feeling empty and cold where I stand. My chest twinges sharply.
Because that just felt like a goodbye.
My first sign should have been the tickets. It seems so obvious now.
Addison and Loxley left hours before us with little more than a wave and a promise to see us soon. At the time, I barely thought about it. There had been too much noise, too many people, too much chaos surrounding the war to question something as simple as train schedules.
Now I know it was never a coincidence.
It was a plan.
Taryn and Emma have already boarded by the time I reach the platform.
I stand frozen, mine and Thalia’s bags hanging heavily from my hands as I stare at the open train door waiting for me.
My pulse pounds against my ribs with every passing second.
The conductor calls the final boarding warning, his voice distant beneath the roar of blood rushing through my ears.
Every instinct inside me is screaming that something is terribly wrong.
Then someone steps beside me. I don’t need to look because I see his reflection in the train window.
Rowan.
My stomach drops. The answer settles in my chest before either of us says a word. It’s piercing betrayal that cuts deep.
My voice comes out hollow. “She isn’t coming, is she?”
The silence that follows destroys me more than any answer could.
Rowan closes his eyes briefly. When he speaks, he sounds tired. “I’m sorry, Reed.”
The world narrows as everything disappears except those three words. Yet, somehow, I can’t believe what he’s just told me. My lungs stop working.
“I tried to stop her.” He says solemnly.
The ground vanishes beneath me, and I finally look at him. I see the truth all over his face. They knew. Every single one of them knew.
“No,” the word barely leaves my mouth. “No,” my grip tightens on the luggage so hard that my fingers ache.
“Reed—”
“I’m not going anywhere.” The panic explodes from me as my voice raises, “I’m not getting on this fucking train.”
People turn to stare, but I don’t care.
“Take me to her.” My voice cracks.
Rowan steps forward. “Reed—”
“Take me to her!” I beg.
For one terrible second, his expression breaks. Then his jaw clenches, and he does the thing I’ll never forgive him for. His hand catches the back of my neck. I barely register the movement before he shoves me hard across the platform.
I stumble through the train doorway as the doors immediately begin to close. My head whips up as I regain my composure, and my heart plummets. “No!”
Metal and glass slam together between us.
“It’s nothing personal,” Rowan says from the other side.
My chest is rising quickly with my fast breathing as the train moves. “No,” I mumble. “No! Stop the train!”
I move with it, every step keeping me close to the man who watches me from the platform with his hands tucked into his jeans.
“Stop!” I shout. “Please! Someone!”
“Reed!” Taryn appears out of nowhere, her hands gripping my biceps. “It’s over. Just sit down—”
“You knew,” I whisper in defeat. “This whole time…”
“It’s for the best,” she says solemnly. “We thought we had lost you when Crystal took you.”
I shake my head in disbelief, stepping away from her. “I can’t believe you…”
“I’m sorry, Reed.”
I drop to my knees right here, my whole body thudding like a big sore. The woman I love is going to war and I’m on a fucking train going in the opposite direction.
I never had the chance to properly tell her…
“Why,” I whisper, my voice broken. “Why…”
My friend pinches her lips as tears flood her eyes. She looks away from me.
Everything is gone.
Thalia.
My everything.
Something irreparable inside of me snaps, and I let out a howl of pain in the center of the train—forever undone by Thalia Kingsley.